Comments on: Moasics: they aren't just for Roman bath houses anymore!http://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore/
Comments on MetaFilter post Moasics: they aren't just for Roman bath houses anymore!Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:40:02 -0800Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:40:02 -0800en-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss60Moasics: they aren't just for Roman bath houses anymore!http://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore
Uh oh, you smashed a dish while you were washing up. But you don't get upset, because you know what to do with the pieces. Being both cultured and crafty, you not only know about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic">long and illustrious history of mosaic art </a>but also that you can make mosaics from china and ceramic shards as well as <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_YiQgS5x37HM/RM_AThEWABI/AAAAAAAAGxc/BU12o44JnSg/Lindos+town+floor.JPG">pebbles</a>, <a href="http://www.riversonfineart.com/images/mosaic_bead_snake_400.jpg">beads</a> (new or removed from old jewelery), <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2309/2402651173_efdcee7cf8.jpg?v=0">shells</a>, <a href="http://www.mosaicsbyjill.com/p7hg_img_2/fullsize/Reflections_2007_fs.jpg">marbles</a>, or even <a href="http://janeyredbrick.blogspot.com/2006/05/mosaics.html">lego</a> or <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/10/scrabble_tile_mosaic_tabl.html">Scrabble tiles.</a> So you take those pieces of your broken plate (and others that klutzy you has broken in the past) and, <a href="http://christys-thriftydecorating.blogspot.com/2008/03/making-mosaic-table.html">following some basic instructions</a>, make <a href="http://mosaictilearts.com/gallery/hnpics.html">numbers for your house</a>, a <a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_K3GHgRYvqQ0/SCjSw0OH7FI/AAAAAAAAABA/1YlefUWQbtQ/s1600-h/Cohen_firePlace.JPG">fire</a><a href="http://www.susanjablonmosaics.com/userfiles/image/bijou-mosaic-fireplc-2-500.jpg">place</a> <a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/36/107687882_c1dc3a36a2.jpg?v=0">surround</a>, a <a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/442923036_0124c19412.jpg?v=0">birdbath</a>, a <a href="http://www.annameyrickstudios.com/images/dragonflyback.jpg">flower</a><a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/212/512328912_b092bd0f9c.jpg?v=0">pot</a>, a <a href="http://www.theresedesjardinstudio.com/images-art-paintings-prints/Dons-images-graphics-photo/10MOSAIC.TABLE.SONGBIRD-1A.jpg">table</a> or <a href="http://www.denisescreations.com/Mosaic_Table_Close_Up.JPG">two</a> <a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/182/478257511_fa5baf8074.jpg?v=0">or</a> <a href="http://www.kyzodesign.com.au/pb/wp_fa2fb800/images/img31723443f84551f5c9.jpg">four</a>, a<a href="http://www.lamosaicgifts.co.uk/thumbnails/Mosaic_59.jpg"> tray</a>, <a href="http://www.craftsforacure.com/product_images/MosaicPurplesM.jpg">picture</a> or <a href="http://static.flickr.com/142/325398349_58ae233180.jpg">mirror</a> frames, a <a href="http://www.thejoyofshards.co.uk/london/hitch/08.shtml">wall mural/homage to Hitchcock</a>, or even <a href="http://www.findamuralist.com/mural_images/thumbnails/180_mosaic%20floor.jpg">a floor</a>. By now you're wishing you had a spare <a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2555852139_0daed52969.jpg?v=0">basilica</a> or <a href="http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/roman-villa-and-museum-rabat-mosfl.jpg">Roman villa</a> so you could really go nuts. <small>And, besides planning on picking up some thrift shop china, you're eyeing that 48-piece reindeer-and-elves Christmas dinnerware set your mother-in-law gave you a few years back and thinking it's really too bad you're so clumsy and likely to break it in the very near future.</small>post:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:27:46 -0800orange swanmosaicschinacraftscraftingdecorativeartcreativerecyclingmosaicrecyclingartupcyclingBy: Navelgazerhttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261005
Wow... that's really, really cool stuff. BTW, the Roman Villa link isn't working 9at least for me) where was that supposed to go?comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261005Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:40:02 -0800NavelgazerBy: Combustible Edison Lighthousehttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261010
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theclubcreatures/tags/108wyckoff/show/">108 Wyckoff St in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.</a>comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261010Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:43:24 -0800Combustible Edison LighthouseBy: sexyrobothttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261015
you know what i would love to see in mosaic? animation!comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261015Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:45:37 -0800sexyrobotBy: Combustible Edison Lighthousehttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261024
And if you're in the south of England, the <a href="http://www.stoa.org/gallery/Bignor,West-Sussex,England">Roman Villa at Bignor</a> is worth a visit. Part of the charm is that it just looks like a <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=bignor+villa&sll=50.943611,-0.575924&sspn=0.042724,0.053387&ie=UTF8&ll=50.92221,-0.597081&spn=0.005343,0.010321&t=h&z=17">not-very-interesting farmer's field</a> when you drive by it.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261024Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:52:21 -0800Combustible Edison LighthouseBy: The Light Fantastichttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261026
<em>you know what i would love to see in mosaic? animation!</em>
Two tabs of LSD should take care of that for you!comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261026Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:52:43 -0800The Light FantasticBy: -harlequin-http://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261039
Mosaics didn't interest me much until I saw the one in the movie Alexander - instead of cobblestones in an outdoor meeting area, there was a map of the world, a stone mosaic that was the ground, impervious to elements, and a useful map (and an aide when explaining things to the movie's audience).
Since then, pristine cobblestones or paving now looks like wasted opportunity :-)comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261039Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:57:30 -0800-harlequin-By: TwelveTwohttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261175
Thanks. Now I feel like a barbarian using these broken plates as improvised weapons.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261175Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:59:01 -0800TwelveTwoBy: Eekacathttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261286
Man, I'd love that Psycho one in my shower. Awesome!comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261286Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:45:55 -0800EekacatBy: Tubehttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261336
Here is a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthetube/sets/72157606530741909/">Flickr set</a> of some sidewalk mosaics I found in Seattle.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261336Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:10:41 -0800TubeBy: sonascopehttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261397
You know, I'd never really thought much about mosaic, except to look at it with a kind of shrug. I'd been doing pickup deranged street theater gigs at the <a href="http://www.avam.org">American Visionary Art Museum</a> for four years when they started the first phase of their project to cover all the bare concrete on the facility with <a href="http://mosaicartsource.wordpress.com/2006/12/29/mosaic-mirror-exterior-the-visionary-art-museum-baltimore/">a mirror/bottle/ceramic mosaic</a>, and at the time, I really thought it was a step backwards for the place. Forgive me, but I happen to like bare concrete in modern architecture.
Of course, after four more years of pickup deranged street theater gigs, when I was in the midst of a flounder-y attempt at being a freelance building contractor to atone for almost twenty years as a high security micrographic tech and media archivist, they asked if I'd be interested in coming on board for the next year-long phase of mosaic construction.
I'd consumed my 401k, churned through my savings, and was well on the way to the kind of depression where you keep finding yourself on the floor of your kitchen in your underpants surrounded by empty Cool-Whip containers, so naturally I said "sure!"
As construction engineer and number two guy to our <a href="http://marigardner.com/">lead artist/educator</a>, I spent a year on a diesel lift, mounting rails and cement board panels, helping the artist mark the panels with the overall design, coming up with solutions to technical problems and working out ways to make our final project more long-lived (those media archivist years, with all the boring study of materials archivality, came in handy), and transporting heavy crap from one end of Baltimore to the other. Some 20,000 pounds of finished mosaic panels rode on the top of my Metro that year, which is why my car still rides a little funny.
We worked with kids in juvenile detention programs, homeless shelters, drug treatment centers, and they did most of the construction work and a fair amount of the design, within the overall outlines the artist laid out, and it was the kind of experience of watching people's attitudes change through the study of art that really justifies spending money on art. By the end, when we were rushing to beat our deadlines and the end-of-project date on the HUD grant that funded the project, I came down from the diesel lift and spent the last several months doing mosaic work, too, to help out.
Funny thing, that.
I still love raw concrete with the woodgrain and the formwork tracery visible, but after a year spent working on that mosaic, and reading up on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser">Hundertwasser</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD">Gaudi</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Guell">Park Guell—holy mother of suwheeet <em>jeez</em></a>), and taking lots of field trips to Philadelphia to see <a href="http://www.isaiahzagar.org/">Isaiah Zagar's works in progress</a> and <a href="http://www.villagearts.org/">Lily Yeh's art parks</a>, I have to think I've definitely incorporated the rough logic and lyricism of mosaic into my approach to the world.
I'm still at the museum, hired on after the grant ran out as the head of facility tech and maintenance, and I'm still working on mosaic, doing little projects here and there when I can sneak them into the garden or hidden corners around the place, and mosaic becomes an answer to a lot of questions that you wouldn't normally connect with mosaic. When regrading our wildflower garden to improve drainage, and after trying to figure out a way to raise the beds without doing something ugly and unnatural looking, I realized that, rather than hide the low curb walls I'd have to build, I could build them <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_can_wall">freehand</a> (<a href="http://earthship.net/">earthship-style</a>), given them a scratch coat, and mosaic them (with a little help from my friends), and bring a little Gaudi to Baltimore.
You get where you can't stop yourself, which is why there's a sad tendency for mosaic to devolve into hippie kitsch, alas, but I'm doing my best to practice restraint. What it really gives you is this amazing sense that there's nothing that can't be salvaged, reused, or repurposed—that everything belongs somewhere, in a context that maybe only you know, and so you mix up a fresh batch of thinset mortar, oil up your glass cutters, and have that great moment of revelation that comes from seeing what's possible.
<em>I think I'll start out right here, in this blue-green glass</em>.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261397Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:51:09 -0800sonascopeBy: jammyhttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261405
mosaics rule! thanks for this!
be sure to also check out: <a href="http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/mosaics.htm">Beehive Design Collective - Mosaics</a>
and here's a <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/18901498@N00/sets/72157605906188634/">Mosaic Touring Bike</a>comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261405Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:57:59 -0800jammyBy: dawsonhttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261417
when there are more favorites than comments you know you have a quality, time-intensive, interesting post...thanks OS.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261417Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:04:10 -0800dawsonBy: thatbrunettehttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261801
This was a fantastic and fun post. Thanks! And damn that Christmas dinnerware set to hell!comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261801Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:04:51 -0800thatbrunetteBy: Kimothyhttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261879
Those Hitchcock murals are great. Some of them are really well done. - Then again, I'm pretty much for anything that glorifies Hitchcock movies. Thanks for that.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261879Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:36:23 -0800KimothyBy: 3.2.3http://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2261945
That basilica link goes to a picture of the cathedral at Monreale, right?
Isiaah Zagar's lot is a hoot and a holler. I was visiting Philly and walked by it with a friend. We had no idea who had done it.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2261945Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:16:41 -08003.2.3By: crataegushttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2262074
This was awesome. Thank you. Now I have to break things.comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2262074Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:45:15 -0800crataegusBy: electrastephhttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2262146
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/electrasteph/sets/72157603269957602/show/">Our Bottle cap art car</a>comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2262146Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:00:03 -0800electrastephBy: rmd1023http://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2262168
millions of people go to the walt disney world magic kingdom. and while they all see "cinderella's castle", very few of them notice the gorgeous mosaics in the archway that tell the story of cinderella.
links to a blog entry <a href="http://mosaicinfo.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/inside-cinderellas-castle-at-walt-disney-world/">http://mosaicinfo.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/inside-cinderellas-castle-at-walt-disney-world/</a> and <a href="http://flickr.com/search/?ss=2&ct=6&w=all&q=disney+cinderella+mosaic&m=tags">flickr tags "disney + cinderella + mosaic</a>comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2262168Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:45:17 -0800rmd1023By: 912 Greenshttp://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2262755
Oh man, I love mosaics. I'm totally gonna go home and break shit.
Great post!comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2262755Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:13:54 -0800912 GreensBy: mecran01http://www.metafilter.com/74937/Moasics-they-arent-just-for-Roman-bath-houses-anymore#2263286
Metafilter: <i>where you keep finding yourself on the floor of your kitchen in your underpants surrounded by empty Cool-Whip containers</i>comment:www.metafilter.com,2008:site.74937-2263286Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:22:49 -0800mecran01